2 comments:

I agreed with much of what Rob Portman said. I think he's right when he says the rising generation doesn't look at the social issues the same way we do. (I'm using 'we' loosely here, realizing conservatives disagree on these points, and also admitting that I'm in the age range of the youth vote and therefore part of the aforementioned 'rising generation'.)

The public schools (indoctrination centers) have made it pretty clear that gay is inborn and therefore condemning the behavior is tantamount to condemning the person. Any debate on this point is squashed by name-calling of 'bigot' and 'neandrathal.' Short of a rejuvenation of the forefather's original Bible mission in the United States, we have lost this culture fight as social conservatives. I'm sad to see people equating a sexual inclination with 1) heritage and 2) skin color, but not surprised. It's been a key issue in Hollywood and TV for over a decade now. As we've seen, there's no arguing with Hollywood.

So the people who voted on social issues on the Democrat side are convinced - CONVINCED - they are voting for 'civil rights'. What they are actually voting for is a new morality, but unless we're able to re-frame the discussion so both views are at least in the frame, we lose.

The problem is that even though many social conservatives want to forget these fights over morality to focus on fiscal conservatism, we cannot. We aren't being allowed to. Romney tried to run this campaign purely on the economy and fiscal sanity/prowess. He was repeatedly dragged into the gutter by the Obama campaign, and sometimes by Republican senatorial candidates who were hypothesizing about rape out loud again.

Lesson: we will not be allowed to forgo social issues. Next time, we need to be prepared to address these issues. We cannot ignore them.

Personally, I don't think the government should be involved in marriage or religion at all. But as far as abortion goes, any historical, even secular, view of it must condemn it. Infanticide (calling a rose a rose) is not new. It is not enlightened. It's just, unfortunately, trendy.